Former Naughty Dog Narrative Design Lead Taylor Kurosaki and Lead Game Designer Jacob Mankoff have left the company to join Infinity Ward, which is currently working on a future Call of Duty game.
These two moves were confirmed via tweets by the two parties themselves, as seen below:
Jacob Minkoff (@JacobMinkoff)
New job! Design Director at Infinity Ward. Love ND; can’t wait to play Uncharted 4 as a fan. Excited to work with the talented team at IW!
Taylor Kurosaki (@taylorkurosaki)
Very psyched to share that I’ve joined the phenomenal team at @InfinityWard as the studio’s narrative director. To infinity and beyond!
This news comes just months after the departure of Writer Amy Hennig, Lead Character Artist Michael Knowland, Director Justin Richmond, and Art Director Nate Wells.
Also See: Naughty Dog is Considering The Last of Us 2
Nothing has leaked outside of the Naughty Dog offices to offer insight into why so many people from key positions are leaving the studio. Rumor has it there is some disagreement on the direction of Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End. It’s just as likely that team veterans are looking to work on something a little different. Naughty Dog doesn’t move far away from its third-person shooter formula, after all.
As apocalyptic as all this sounds, Naughty Dog just released arguably its best title of all time in the form of The Last of Us. These departures are sure to make some form of impact on the studio’s future work in some way, but this is Naughty Dog we’re talking about. There’s almost no chance that Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End won’t be great.
[Via: DualShockers]
